“I’m sure you did.” Noah ribbed him as he held his hand out to help me out of the vehicle.
I threw my coat in the vehicle before Jace drove off—I didn’t want to forget it anywhere or carry it around. We walked up to the door and I could hear the music pouring out. We packed turnouts like this when I had been performing in the band. It had helped the restaurant in sales, and we had gained a name for ourselves. People from all over came to watch us sing and perform.
There was a guy I didn’t recognize manning the door. “Five dollars,” he said cheerfully.
“I don’t think so, buddy,” Troy stated with an easy smile. “This is our party.”
The guy looked skeptically down at his clipboard. “Troy, Jace, Jaxson, Noah, and Misty?”
I snorted knowing Jemmy had told him my name was Misty. “That’s us. Flash is right behind us.”
The guy gave me an appreciative look. “You’re probably the third Wonder Woman I saw tonight, but you,” he eyed me up and down. “Fill out the costume the best,” he smiled at me with a wink.
“Look away, my man,” Jaxson said with an easy smile, but steel was in his voice. “She’s taken.”
He quickly held up his hands, clip board and all. “No sweat, dude. Didn’t hurt to try.”
I was ushered inside ahead of the guys and was momentarily taken aback at the transformation inside. There were wall to wall people. I could see several people eating at tables, getting food, and dancing on the makeshift dance floor.
Ben, Taylor, Rick, and Mike were currently playing some upbeat music on the makeshift stage. Remy had built a stage for us originally, but I guess without me influencing his decisions this time around, he hadn’t.
I grabbed the closest hand to me. On stage I didn’t have any issues with the amount of people around me, but among them I had anxiety issues.
Noah squeezed my hand reassuringly. “It looks like Jemmy has a VIP area near the stage. We can head there, there aren’t as many people.”
“I’ll go get us some food,” Jaxson stated. At the mention of food my stomach growled. I hadn’t eaten much food today.
“Sounds good,” Troy gave Jaxson a fist pump before he took the spot on the other side of me and started maneuvering us through the crowd.
I tried to keep close to them, letting them buffer me between the crowd. It took us a few minutes to make our way across the room to the VIP section. It was in the corner near one of the bars and roped off. Jemmy, Gavin, Rachel, Terrance, Michael, Sam, Dawn, and Marcel were sitting, eating, drinking, and talking in the large corner booth. There was still room for us to squeeze in the booth and drag additional chairs up to the table.
“Woah, Blake,” Terrance said in a flirtatious tone as he winked at the boys.
The team had become like family, and he was well aware of my connections, but I also knew that wouldn’t stop him from pushing their buttons.
“Thanks,” I blushed, glad for the low lighting in the restaurant.
“You look fabulous girl!” Dawn exclaimed.
“Thanks,” I muttered with a smile.
“I heard you had an altercation and botched kidnapping attempt today,” Michael said as he leaned forward with concern. “Are you okay?”
I gave him a feigned smile and nodded as the others groaned at his lack of tact. “Fine.” I said as I glared at Jemmy.
“It wasn’t me.” She held up her hands.
“Will told us,” Terrance explained gently. “We have a team meeting on Monday, after the o-course, with the other teams. He has apprised us of the new situation regarding your…brother and Horatio.”
We had a ‘friendly’ competition on Monday, involving all the active Knights. We canceled our normal morning run in lieu of the race. It also gave us a little extra time to sleep in. It was scheduled after school began.
“Am I permitted to come?” I asked with interest. I didn’t want to be out of the loop. My hatred for Horatio had grown since this morning. I wanted to hit him where it hurt, more now than ever.
Terrance nodded. “All the teams will be there. Jemmy, Jaxson, Rachel, Gavin, and Noah will be excused from all their classes for the complete day, not just the morning.”
“Why didn’t I hear about this?” Jemmy asked affronted. This afternoon, we had already had a family meeting, minus Remy, to let them know about the new development.
“Because Pops wanted you to study for the test you’re supposed to be taking,” Noah said with a snort of laughter.
Jemmy rolled her eyes. “It’s not the first time I had to take a make-up test,” she said petulantly.
“Enough shop talk,” Rachel insisted as she handed me a drink. Her eyes were glazed over, her cheeks red, and she looked more perky than normal.
My eyes narrowed as I took a sip of it. She winked at me and held a finger up to her lips, in the universal ‘be quiet’ gesture. The drink wasn’t unpleasant, in fact it was tasty. I could taste something sour; orange juice and another taste I wasn’t familiar with. I eyed my glass for a moment before I shrugged and took another large sip. I knew it contained alcohol, but I didn’t care. After the day I had, I needed it.
I had never been a big drinker. In fact, after growing up near Heidi and her boyfriends, I had shunned it. It wasn’t until I felt I could drink in a controlled environment around people I felt safe with, did I ever allow myself to slightly overindulge in it. Plus, Will was raised in an Italian family. It was common for the children in his family to have a glass of wine with dinner. Although he hadn’t allowed his own children and the children partake in it. He had allowed Jemmy, Jaxson, Rachel, and I to drink the occasional glass with dinner.
Jaxson and Jace came back with our food, and I found myself caught up in the current conversation. Rachel and Jemmy continued to fill my glass and I let them. Especially after I spied Remy above us on the catwalk. He wasn’t alone.
Remy had kept, but refaced and renovated, the old foreman’s office located in the corner of the restaurant. You had to climb a set of metal stairs to get it. He had also kept the original catwalk that circled and intersected the outside perimeter of the whole restaurant. He found it convenient to walk along it and watch from above to make sure his employees were being productive.
I saw Remy had gotten the memo about our costumes because he was dressed as Thor. Scoot over, Chris Hemsworth, because you have nothing on Remington Murphy, I thought as I looked up at him. He still seemed to be in his aloof mood, but that hadn’t stopped two of the Knight females I was vaguely familiar with from following him to the upper level. He didn’t seem to be entertaining them much as he leaned on the railing watching the party with an unfathomable look. They continued to fawn all over him and kept whispering stuff in his ears. I was seeing red.